There could be big implications if Congress lets a hotly contested post-9/11 law die

A reporter takes a mobile
phone picture of National Security Agency (NSA) Director U.S.
Army General Keith Alexander as he takes his seat to testify
before a U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
hearing on recently disclosed NSA surveillance programs, at the
U.S. Capitol in Washington June 18, 2013.REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Passed in the wake of the
September 11 terrorist attacks, the act has been used to justify
controversial national security programs — including the National
Security Agency's bulk
collection and storage of Americans' call
records.

Before the act's expiration on
June 1, a coalition of Democrats and a few
libertarian-minded Republicans are threatening to block renewal
efforts unless the NSA's dragnet spying program is significantly
curtailed.

If Congress fails to
reauthorize the act, the NSA would be forced to shutter the
controversial program.

The NSA has already begun winding down the program. On Wednesday,
the Justice Department circulated a memo warning lawmakers
that the NSA had begun shutting down the program in preparation
for the law's expiration on June 1.

But the expiration would also
have wider implications.

The FBI would be hit hard by a failure to reauthorize. The
agency would no longer be able to operate "roving
wiretaps," which allow the agency to quickly change
wiretaps when a suspect switches phones, alerting courts after
the agency has tapped a new phone, as The New York Times has
reported.

As Politico notes,
the agency would also lose access to certain private
records, which include suspected terrorists' library
reading lists and gun ownership data.

Property searches would be much harder. The agency
can currently obtain a search warrant for a suspected "lone wolf"
terrorist even if that individual has no
proven links to an official terrorist
organization. Agents would also be barred from
searching private properties without notifying
owners until long
after agents have left, according to the
ACLU.

Former U.S. National
Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden appears live via video
during a student organized world affairs conference at the Upper
Canada College private high school in Toronto, February 2,
2015.REUTERS/Mark
Blinch

Reauthorization remains tied up
in the Senate, where a coalition of Senators want to revise Section
215 — referred to as the "business records
provision" — which
the Obama administration has used to justify the NSA's bulk
collection of telephone metadata.

The likelihood that
Congress won't
reauthorize any part of the Patriot Act is unlikely. The House
has already overwhelmingly passed the USA Freedom Act, which
keeps most of the Patriot Act in place but puts some restrictions
on the NSA's telephone collection operations.

Already several compromises are also in the works to
save the Patriot Act, including a short-term reauthorization
pushed by Sen.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) that would give
Congress more time to debate NSA spying after a brief
recess.

U.S. Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper (seated, L) and Deputy Attorney
General James Cole prepare to testify at a House Intelligence
Committee hearing as protesters hold up signs in the audience on
Capitol Hill in Washington, October 29, 2013.REUTERS/Jason Reed

But even if Congress does
reauthorize the Patriot Act, there's no guarantee that the most
controversial parts will survive. Earlier this month, a US
appeals court
ruledthat bulk collection
of data was not covered under Section 215.

"The government can point to no grand jury subpoena that is
remotely comparable to the real‐time data collection undertaken
under this program," the opinion
stated.

"This was a surprising decision
given the reluctance of courts to second-guess
intelligence-gathering in the war on terror," UCLA law professor
Adam Winkler told Business Insider. "Given the importance of this
ruling for national security, the Supreme Court is likely to step
in."